Definitions for dread
drɛddread

Princeton's WordNetRate this definition:5.0 / 1 vote

1. apprehension, apprehensiveness, dreadadjective

   fearful expectation or anticipation

   "the student looked around the examination room with apprehension"

2. awful, dire, direful, dread(a), dreaded, dreadful, fearful, fearsome, frightening, horrendous, horrific, terribleverb

   causing fear or dread or terror

   "the awful war"; "an awful risk"; "dire news"; "a career or vengeance so direful that London was shocked"; "the dread presence of the headmaster"; "polio is no longer the dreaded disease it once was"; "a dreadful storm"; "a fearful howling"; "horrendous explosions shook the city"; "a terrible curse"

3. fear, dreadverb

   be afraid or scared of; be frightened of

   "I fear the winters in Moscow"; "We should not fear the Communists!"

WiktionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. dreadnoun

   A great fear.

2. dreadnoun

   Somebody or something dreaded.

3. dreadnoun

   A Rastafarian.

4. dreadnoun

   dreadlock

5. dreadverb

   To fear greatly.

6. dreadverb

   To anticipate with fear.

   I'm dreading getting the results of the test, as it could decide my whole life.

7. dreadadjective

   Terrible; greatly feared.

8. dreadadjective

   Awe-inspiring; held in fearful awe.

9. Etymology: dreden, from drædan, aphetic form of adrædan, ondrædan; compare with Dutch ontraden, from and- + rædan. Akin to intratan. More at read.

Samuel Johnson's DictionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Dreadadjective

   Etymology: dræd, Saxon.

   1. Terrible; frightful.

   That e’er this tongue of mine,
   That laid the sentence of dread banishment
   On yond’ proud man, should take it off again
   With words of sooth! William Shakespeare, Richard II.

   It cannot be, but thou hast murther’d him:
   So should a murtherer look, so dread, so grim. William Shakespeare.

   To be expos’d against the warring winds?
   To stand against the deep dread bolted thunder. William Shakespeare.

   Amaze
   Be sure, and terrour, seiz’d the rebel host,
   When, coming towards them, so dread they saw
   The bottom of the mountains upward turn’d. John Milton, P. Lost.

   2. Awful; venerable in the highest degree.

   Thou, attended gloriously from heav’n,
   Shalt in the sky appear, and from thee send
   The summoning archangels to proclaim
   Thy dread tribunal. John Milton, Paradise Lost, b. iii. l. 323.

   From this descent
   Celestial virtues rising, will appear
   More glorious and more dread than from no fall. John Milton.

   3. This seems to be the meaning of that controverted phrase dread majesty. Some of the old acts of parliament are said in the preface to be metuendissimi regis, our dread sovereign’s.

2. DREADnoun

   Etymology: drad, Saxon.

   1. Fear; terrour; affright.

   Think’st thou that duty shall have dread to speak,
   When pow’r to flatt’ry bows? To plainness honour
   Is bound, when majesty to folly falls. William Shakespeare, King Lear.

   But was ever any wicked man free from the stings of a guilty conscience, from the secret dread of divine displeasure, and of the vengeance of another world? John Tillotson, Serm. 4.

   If our fears can be awakened with the dread of evil, he has armed his laws with the terrour of eternal misery. John Rogers.

   2. Habitual fear; awe.

   The fear of you, and the dread of you, shall be upon every beast of the earth. Gen. ix. 2.

   3. The person or thing feared; the cause of fear.

   To thee, of all our good the sacred spring;
   To thee, our dearest dread; to thee, our softer king. Matthew Prior.

3. To Dreadverb

   To fear in an excessive degree.

   Etymology: from the noun.

   You may despise that which terrifies others, and which yet all, even those who most dread it, must in a little time encounter. William Wake.

4. To Dreadverb

   To be in fear.

   Dread not, neither be afraid of them. Deut. i. 8.

ChatGPTRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. dread

   Dread is a strong feeling of fear or apprehension about something that may happen in the future. It's often associated with anxiety or alarm related to anticipating or expecting a negative, unpleasant, or dangerous event or situation. This emotion can be both short-term, such as fear of an upcoming exam or long-term, like worrying about a potential health issue.

Webster DictionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Dreadverb

   to fear in a great degree; to regard, or look forward to, with terrific apprehension

2. Dreadverb

   to be in dread, or great fear

3. Dreadnoun

   great fear in view of impending evil; fearful apprehension of danger; anticipatory terror

4. Dreadnoun

   reverential or respectful fear; awe

5. Dreadnoun

   an object of terrified apprehension

6. Dreadnoun

   a person highly revered

7. Dreadnoun

   fury; dreadfulness

8. Dreadnoun

   doubt; as, out of dread

9. Dreadadjective

   exciting great fear or apprehension; causing terror; frightful; dreadful

10. Dreadadjective

    inspiring with reverential fear; awful' venerable; as, dread sovereign; dread majesty; dread tribunal

11. Etymology: [AS. drdan, in comp.; akin to OS. drdan, OHG. trtan, both only in comp.]

WikidataRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Dread

   Dread is a live album by Living Colour released only in Japan in 1994. It contains live recordings from the Stain tour, an acoustic radio session and two B-sides. The live recordings were recorded on 7 June 1993 at Le Zenith in Paris, France and at a concert on 24 April 1993 at the Riviera Theatre in Chicago. The radio session was recorded for a Dutch radio show called Countdown Café in February 1993. Both of the B-sides were recorded during the Stain sessions.

Chambers 20th Century DictionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Dread

   dred, n. fear: awe: the objects that excite fear.—adj. dreaded: inspiring great fear or awe.—v.t. to regard with terror: to regard with reverence.—adjs. Dread′able; Dread′ful, (orig.) full of dread: producing great fear or awe: terrible.—adv. Dread′fully.—n. Dread′fulness.—adj. Dread′less, free from dread: intrepid.—adv. Dread′lessly.—n. Dread′lessness.—adj. Dread′ly (Spens.) dreadful.—ns. Dread′naught, Dread′nought, one who dreads nothing—hence, a garment of thick cloth defending against the weather: the cloth of which it is made.—Penny dreadful, a cheap sensational serial or tale, usually bloody in subject and vulgar in tone. [M. E. dreden—A.S. on-drǽdan, to fear; Ice. ondréda, Old High Ger. in-tratan, to be afraid.]

Surnames Frequency by Census RecordsRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. DREAD

   According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Dread is ranked #133048 in terms of the most common surnames in America.
   
   The Dread surname appeared 127 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 0 would have the surname Dread.
   
   86.6% or 110 total occurrences were Black.
   6.3% or 8 total occurrences were White.
   4.7% or 6 total occurrences were of Hispanic origin.

Anagrams for dread »

1. readd

2. adder

3. dared

How to pronounce dread?

1. Alex

   US English

   David

   US English

   Mark

   US English

   Daniel

   British

   Libby

   British

   Mia

   British

   Karen

   Australian

   Hayley

   Australian

   Natasha

   Australian

   Veena

   Indian

   Priya

   Indian

   Neerja

   Indian

   Zira

   US English

   Oliver

   British

   Wendy

   British

   Fred

   US English

   Tessa

   South African

How to say dread in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of dread in Chaldean Numerology is: 7

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of dread in Pythagorean Numerology is: 5

Examples of dread in a Sentence

1. Aldous Huxley:

   The vast majority of human beings dislike and even dread all notions with which they are not familiar. Hence it comes about that at their first appearance innovators have always been devided as fools and madmen.

2. Homer:

   There is nothing more dread and more shameless than a woman who plans such deeds in her heart as the foul deed which she plotted when she contrived her husband's murder.

3. Vivien Leigh:

   Sometimes I dread the truth of the lines I say. But the dread must never show.

4. North Carolina:

   And I will tell you, as much as I am willing to defend our liberty at all costs, there's nothing that I would dread doing more than having to pick up arms against a fellow American. And the way that we can have recourse against that is if we all passionately demand that we have election security in all 50 states.

5. John Thurman:

   I would take the Metro down and we would stop at the Pentagon station, there'd just be this feeling of dread even pulling through the station. The first time I was back in the building, I could still smell that kerosene smell, which was unnerving.

Popularity rank by frequency of use

References

1. ^ Princeton's WordNet
   http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=dread
2. ^ Wiktionary
   https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Dread
3. ^ Samuel Johnson's Dictionary
   https://johnsonsdictionaryonline.com/views/search.php?term=dread
4. ^ ChatGPT
   https://chat.openai.com
5. ^ Webster Dictionary
   https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dread
6. ^ Wikidata
   https://www.wikidata.org/w/index.php?search=dread
7. ^ Chambers 20th Century Dictionary
   https://www.gutenberg.org/files/37683/37683-h/37683-h.htm#:~:text=dread
8. ^ Surnames Frequency by Census Records
   https://www.census.gov/topics/population/genealogy/data/2010_surnames.html